© Estate of Martin Kippenberger, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne Image Courtesy of Skarstedt New YorkIt seemed fitting that I was reading Charming Billy, the 1997 book by Alice McDermott about a charming man who died from alcoholism, when I went to go visit “Martin Kippenberger: Hand Painted Pictures,” an exhibition of 12 paintings open through December 16 at Skarstedt Gallery on the Upper East Side. Martin Kippenberger was a renowned alcoholic, a man whose art making was often a sidebar to his relentless partying. The paintings in the show are self portraits made in 1992 on the Greek island of Syros. They depict Kippenberger, beer gut forward, taking on the poses of a boxer, a dancer, Adam facing God in an imitation of Michelangelo’s famous Sistine Chapel ceiling fresco. “He never worked in a drunken state,” said Gisela Capitain, who first met Kippenberger in Berlin in the late 1970s, and remains the representative of his estate.

Source: Forbes November 26, 2017 18:22 UTC